Jazz Town: The jazz beat lured pianist Helen Sung off her classical path

The decision to make jazz her life’s work came late for pianist Helen Sung: She was already a well-trained classical pianist, close to finishing her undergraduate degree in that field.

“I can’t forget classical music ever, but in my daily decisions, I realized that this is my path now,” she says. “I think jazz is the most amazing art form, and I’m blessed there was room for me on the scene.”

There’s room indeed for a player like this. The accomplished jazz pianist and composer can now boast of wide and deep experience in the music — and she brings her quartet to the Blue Room on Saturday.

Sung has often told the story: She grew up in Houston and studied intently at the city’s High School of Performing and Visual Arts. (No, she didn’t go to school with Beyonce.) Then she studied classical piano at the University of Texas at Austin. And through all that, she remained blissfully unaware of jazz.

“A friend invited me to a Harry Connick Jr. concert when he came to Austin with a big band. I didn’t even know who he was. … In the middle of the show he came out and played some solo piano. I was so struck by the energy and the life in the music. It was like, ‘How come nobody ever told me about this before?’ ”

In the UT library, she started reading books about jazz and listening to recordings. “No method to it. Just listening to people from Fats Waller to Anthony Braxton and everything in between. Especially Herbie Hancock, Bill Evans, Miles Davis.”

Still, she says, “I didn’t have any context for this.” Yet she wanted to give it a try. “I stalked the jazz piano professor until he agreed to give me a lesson.”

With her classical training, there was no problem getting her fingers to the notes. “I had the chops, but I didn’t have the feeling, the language, the aesthetics.” Her homework was to play bebop heads, the foundations of modern jazz. “And he pointed me toward records that had influenced him. One of them was by Tommy Flanagan, ‘Confirmation’ … I remember being struck by the beauty of his solo, unfolding like a classical composition. It was one of the moments when I thought, ‘I really want to play like that one day.’ ”

The switch from classical to jazz wasn’t easy, artistically or personally. “My parents were already not happy that I wanted to be a musician. When I suddenly told them I wanted to play jazz, they thought I had lost it.”

Sung wanted to head for New York and learn to play on the scene there. Her father insisted that she find a school where she could learn jazz. She was accepted into the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz college program in Boston.

“I credit that program with putting me on the path I’m on today,” Sung says. “There was only one academic class, and the rest was learning from the masters. Clark Terry was there, Jimmy Heath, Jackie McLean, Ron Carter, Jon Faddis, Barry Harris …”

KCK native Bobby Watson was among them, too. “I needed those two years to immerse myself and practice this music and try to understand the culture that comes from and surrounds it.”

After the Monk Institute, Sung stuck around Boston for a year, building confidence with steady gigs. “I tried a lot of different things, put into practice things the masters had told us.” But there was one thing still on her agenda.

“After a year I thought, ‘Let’s give the New York thing a try.’ I’ve been here ever since, much to my surprise.

“Seventeen years now, can you believe it?”

She has created six albums as a bandleader, with a seventh already recorded and due for release next year. And she’s plenty active in other bands.

“I love my leader work, and I love sideman work. It’s a different challenge, it keeps me on my toes. … I play a lot in the Mingus Big Band, Terri Lyne Carrington’s Mosaic Project, T.S. Monk’s sextet, various other things.” These projects have taken her around the world, including a personally meaningful gig in the Taiwanese town where her parents grew up.

She has been a fairly regular visitor to Kansas City over the last dozen years or so. This time, she’s bringing a quartet with saxophonist John Ellis, bassist Boris Kozlov and drummer Darrell Green. And she’ll be dropping by the University of Missouri-Kansas City to return a long-ago favor.

“One of my favorites at the Monk Institute was Bobby Watson. … I’m going to do a master class at UMKC the day before the gig. I’m impressed with this amazing, beautiful scene that’s growing up here and all the work that Bobby’s done.

“I owe a lot to his teaching. I look forward to seeing and visiting with his students. And getting some barbecue.”

Sung’s quartet performs at 8:30 p.m. Saturday at the Blue Room, 1600 E. 18th St. Tickets are $15.

Noteworthy

▪ Highlights at the Green Lady Lounge, 1809 Grand Blvd., include the Boulevard Big Band at 5:30 p.m. Sunday, followed by trumpeter Stan Kessler’s Playground band at 9:30 p.m.; a showcase for the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s jazz bands at 6 p.m. Tuesday, followed by tenor saxophonist Steven Lambert at 10 p.m.; drummer Natalie Bates’ trio at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, followed by organist Ken Lovern’s OJT at 9 p.m.; guitarist Matt Hopper’s trio at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, followed by organist Chris Hazelton’s quartet at 9 p.m.; pianist Tim Whitmer’s quartet at 5:30 p.m. Friday, followed by Guitar Elation at 8:30 p.m. and Hazelton’s Boogaloo 7 at 10 p.m.; and singer Molly Hammer at 6 p.m. Saturday, followed by guitarist Mitch Towne at 8:30 p.m. and OJT at 9:30 p.m.

▪ The Blue Room also has alto saxophonist Mike Herrera running the Monday jam at 7 p.m.; guitarist Max Berry at 7 p.m. Thursday; and bassist Tyrone Clark and True Dig at 8:30 p.m. Friday.

▪ Pianist Tim Whitmer’s trio performs the next show on the jazz series at Johnson County Community College, at noon Tuesday in the Recital Hall in Carlsen Center.

▪ The People’s Liberation Big Band of Greater Kansas City, directed by Brad Cox, performs at 8 p.m. Sunday at the RecordBar, 1520 Grand Blvd.

This story was originally published November 6, 2016 at 7:00 AM with the headline "Jazz Town: The jazz beat lured pianist Helen Sung off her classical path."